This blog provides delicious,traditional, vegetarian, South Indian Recipes from my mother Chitra Amma's kitchen. There are few 'world recipes' as well!
Thanks to Shravan, Pranav, Akash, Tara, Guggs, Shankari, Adu, Dhrithi, and Appa Ramachandran for the photos!

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Valentines Day everybody! Chitra Amma has taken a small break I've taken over posting in the meanwhile! I am posting today after a very long time!

I’ve been making Rossogollas ever since I saw this post in Rak’s Kitchen. They’ve been pretty good – soft, spongy, tasty. The recipe for Rossogollas in short is making Paneer, kneading it and boiling in sugar syrup, and that’s pretty much it!

This time I had the opportunity of making Rossogollas and Rasamalai with my Bengali mother-in-law, for my daughter’s birthday party. 'Technique' takes on a completely new meaning! The technique is the recipe! We landed up with what can only be called little clouds of happiness! We made nearly 80 Rossogollas for a handful of people. We made them in two batches and it took over half a day and HEAPS of patience! Our guests were blown away, and couldn’t get enough. Three months later, they still keep mentioning it. I’ve tried to capture and show all the tips (secrets as my mom-in-law calls them!) in this post. The quantities below make 5 Rossogollas. They’ve gotto be the best Rossogollas I’ve had, but mom-in-law felt it could've been even better!

Ingredients

Full Cream Milk – 1 cup (250ml)

Plain white vinegar – 1 tsp diluted in 2 tsp water ( you may not use all of this)

Sugar – ½ cup

Water – 1 ½ cups

Method

1. Making the perfect Chhana (Bengali for Paneer!) - The aim is to make lovely delicate Paneer that has a soft texture and just the right amount of moisture.

Bring milk to a boil. Add the vinegar-water mixture drop by drop alongside the walls of the vessel. Try not to stir. Once you see that the liquid at the sides has become completely clear, stop the flame. Wait for a while to allow whole lot to curdle. If you are preparing a very large quantity, it may need a few small gentle swirl with a spoon, but by no means feel tempted to stir vigorously, add more vinegar or otherwise get the milk to break quickly.

Strain through a thin muslin cloth. The muslin should be a single layer. Hang the cloth over a sink and allow the liquid to drip off. Patience is essential! Don't be tempted to squeeze the cloth!

The moment the water stops dripping, take the Paneer out onto your kneading surface.

2. Kneading the Chhana – The aim is to get a really smooth Paneer, without even the tiniest granular piece spoiling the texture.

A wooden chopping board is ideal for the purpose, although we just used our glass table top. Ideally you should have a board only for this activity – however, if you just use your cutting board make sure it is thoroughly cleaned with hot water and absolutely dry and odour free before you use it.

You must begin kneading the Paneer as soon as you see that no more moisture is dripping from the muslin cloth. If you wait longer the Paneer can loose moisture. Sometimes expert golla-makers reserve the drip, so that they can add it back if they feel the Paneer is dry!!

You need to smash and mash the Paneer until its really really smooth. You can use the heel of your hands to gently pound the paste. Spread it thin and gather up again. You can use a belan stick if you prefer to help you. Use it first, and then use your hand. See the videos below for technique.

To check if your Paneer is really smooth, spread a thin layer out, if you see small granules the size of sooji (semolina), it’s still not smooth enough. See pictures below.

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Not smooth enough!

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Nearly there!

Keep pounding until a ball can be rolled and the Paneer does not stick to your hand. You can see the butter shining on your hand!

Make small balls of equal size and set aside covered.

3. Boiling the Rossogollas in Sugar Solution – The goal is to have a vigorous boiling, that cooks the Rossogollas evenly on all sides and doubling their size.

Choose a round bottomed vessel, and a burner with a high flame that surrounds the bottom of the vessel. Heat just at the bottom is not enough.

Bring sugar and water to boil (The ratio of sugar to water is 1:3). As soon as the water starts boiling, gently drop the Rossogolla balls into the mixture. Don’t wait long to do this, as you just want sweet water and not really a syrup to boil the Rossogollas.

As before, don’t stir. If your flame is large enough and surrounding the vessel, the balls will start bouncing and banging each other by themselves. Our bowl was a little large for the flame as you can see! Boil like this for 10 minutes. If the sugar-water solutionis becoming thick, sprinkle some cold water on top. It should be sprinkled and not simply poured in, as that will bring the temperature down and stop the cooking process. The Rossogollas will double in size and their movement will slow down! Switch off the flame, cover the vessel and allow to cool naturally. Don’t stir, move or touch the vessel until the Rossogollas have cooled!

Congratulations! You’ve just made some amazing Rossogollas! Enjoy them or make some yummy rabdi to make Rasamalai.

Rasamalai

Ingredients

Rossogollas - 5

Full Cream Milk – 2 cups

Saffron – few strands

Cardamom Pods - 4 (remove skin and pound to a fine powder)

Sugar – 1 tbsp

Method

Boil Milk and keep stirring, until the volume is reduced to half. Stir in saffron strands and powdered cardamom. Mix in sugar. Continue simmering, until the mixture gets a lovely colour and aroma.

If you switch the flame off too fast, you will just have a sugary milk mixture. You must wait until you get the aroma of caramelized sugar. This beats adding condensed milk etc for flavour.

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To make Rasamalai, take one Rossogolla, gently squeeze it between your thumb and pointer. Keep it squeezed until you release it inside the rabdi. This will allow the Rossogolla to absorb the rabdi.

Store Rossogollas and Rasamalais in the refrigerator, and finish in a day or two. I forgot to get a click of the Rasmalai, but will update this post with one, the next time I make it!

This is the best information I have ever read about the techniques of making Rasgullas. Thank you so much for sharing this information..this is very helpful for many ppl like me who has never prepared Rasgulla at home..I must give a try soon....waiting to see Rasamali clicks too...

I tried the Rossogollas yesterday. Amazing result for a first timer. I should have kneaded the chhana a little bit more smoother. They broke a little after dropping into the sugar solution. The taste was great though. Am going to try again today. Thank you very much for the easiest recipe:-)))

hi chitra ammawonderful blog!!!...big thanks to you ma'm for sharing the recipe wth us..i made it yeterday and got a good result..i had done many attempts of different recipies but all were in vain..this time your techniques made my day..i hav posted the pic of my rasgulas in facebook KAF community and got many good reviews nd likes..so as per their request i posted the link of your blog there..thank you so much..waiting for more such recipies..

Hi chitra amma,Thanks for a very good detailed description along with photos. I had tried them before but could not get it right. Now after peeping into ur blog I'm sure I'll have the perfect Rasgollas.

thank you for the detailed post.. everything turned out well till the final product. Once the rasagullas started boiling, they started DISINTEGRATING..:( any idea why?Pl. advisealso, there is a lot of fat in the liquid now..as if lot of ghee has been added :(

Sorry for this very late reply.Practice makes one perfect.Keep practicing till you achieve your goal.As mentioned in the post see that the paneer is not too moist.Kneading is the second secret.Lastly there is a secret 'cheat' ingredient you can use to keep the rasagullas intact!Add a little maida while kneading.

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Welcome to Chitra Amma's Kitchen.

I am Dibs. I am a born Foodie. I love to cook; love to eat; love to feed folks who appreciate good food. Blogging provides me a great way of documenting my mother, Chitra’s recipes, as a ready reference irrespective which time zone I live in. Amma honestly makes the best food I've ever had, and somehow, the anecdotes she tells us, make the dishes taste all the better.Most posts here are written by my mother Chitra. It’s her recipes, along with related reminiscences of people, places and anecdotes. She writes, I post!What started for a lark, has now become a serious hobby, drawing in participation from the whole family. My father, S.R. Ramachandran has started clicking away every dish made at home! Aunts, cousins, siblings, contribute to photos, and ask for recipes.We try to illustrate implements such as utensils, grinding stones and so on from the ‘pre-electric-mixer’ days wherever possible. We hope this will make an interesting read for future generations, on how food was cooked in earlier times!The site is still in its infancy, and slowly evolving, as our skills improve! We invite your comments, ideas, and questions, and will attempt answering them.

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